Chapter Five - It's all in writing!
******
A/N - Hi! I know this is a little unusual but bear with me. Not my usual style, that's
for sure. Sarah will come into this eventually as will Hoggle and possibly some other
Labyrinth creatures. Thank you and please leave a review. ^_^
******
The bright, airy landscape melted away before Arian's eyes and they were once again
in the study.
"What happened? I thought we were going to start!" she said, now feeling utterly
confused.
"We are." said Jareth, sitting down at his desk "But there's a lot of background
information you need to learn first."
"You mean theory work?" her father nodded. Arian breathed a sigh of relief. Theory
was OK. She could handle that side of things...
That moment, her eye fell on an old bookcase that she could have sworn wasn't there
before. This did not concern her, things appeared and disappeared in the Labyrinth all
the time, it was just the way things were. What worried her were the books that rested
on it. By nature, Arian loved anything to do with the written word but these were not
her definition of books. They leaked dark energies beyond her understanding and the
stuffy air around them sizzled with tiny sparks of magic and left an unsavoury metallic
taste in her mouth. The taste of blood, although she could find none! These were not
books, they were a crime against nature!
Jareth noticed his daughter's distress and quickly reassured her : "Don't worry. They're
quite harmless."
"Then, why are they chained to the bookcase?" cried Arian, for they were. Jareth
ignored her question and proceeded to unlock one of them from its tiny shackles. The
book was a very dark brown with iron hinges and an iron lock on the front. Was its
contents that important that it had to be locked up to stop people from getting in? She
thought. Or was the lock there to stop something from getting out? Frankly she didn't
want to know. She just wanted to get out of there and away from that room!
With the same key, her father unlocked the book and placed it on the desk in front of
where she was sitting. They both failed to notice that the star of her pendant briefly
changed from black to clear, then clear to black again, for it happened so quickly that
one blink would have missed it completely. Arian gulped nervously and reached with
a shaking hand to open the book. What she saw made her gasp with both fear and
fascination. There, on the page, lay an ancient scripture Arian had never seen before.
Each letter seemed to rearrange itself every time she tried to concentrate on it and the
ink swirled around fluidly like eels leaving a fluorescent blue trail.
Arian watched mesmerised by the mysterious writing. She imagined it was like
watching some kind of poisonous snake, deadly yet morbidly beautiful. Every now
and again her eyes glowed with recognition when for a split second the text became
briefly legible, but then they would darken again as a letter would skitter off into a
completely different language and on a new part of the page. She was gripped with
frustration at this and grabbed a sword shaped letter opener from the desk and swiftly
plunged it into the heart of a particularly troublesome word. The book gave a shrill
little yelp and slammed shut never taking Arian's hand with it.
Jareth had been watching her all the while. For a moment she looked engrossed in the
text she was faced with. For a few beautiful seconds he thought he had found her
strength and that from then on she would take to magic like a duck to water as she had
done with everything else he had tried teaching her when she was very young. Sadly
this was not so when she tried to gain control through stabbing the words. Jareth
smiled. That was exactly what he had done at that age. Whether she liked it or not his
daughter did indeed take after him in some respects.
"That thing's insane!" cried Arian.
"Well, you weren't being very nice to it." said Jareth smugly.
Arian rolled her eyes "So how do I get it to behave?"
"Does this mean you're finally taking an interest?" he teased.
"If you're going to be all self satisfied like that then I don't care." said Arian haughtily
"I've got far better things to do than restrain maniacal books with you."
"Ah yes! You're little hobbies." her eyes smouldered with anger at the words "I'm
afraid you'll have very little time for such things now that your responsibilities lie
elsewhere."
"What responsibilities? I should think it was quite clear by now that magic and me
just don't mix! What use could I possibly be to you in that respect?"
"You are my only heir, Arian." he replied angrily "And after all I have done for you I
would think it only courteous for you to start doing something in return!"
"Your heir! Oh for Christ's sake! You're not even my real father! Why don't you just
go! Get a girlfriend! Get a proper heir! And leave me be!" she was shouting now
which was very out of character and she got up and stormed out of the room,
slamming the door behind her.
Jareth was about to follow suit but decided against it. It served him right for trying to
interfere with things that were so important to her. Besides, she was a clever girl, she
would come round. He hoped! Something else was troubling him aside from her
stinging remarks. As her anger grew, whatever energies she contained increased and
he could have sworn that her star pendant had gone clear for a few seconds. The book
on the table opened itself and Jareth glanced down to see the strange swirling ink
creatures lined up smartly in standard English. He sucked in some air between his
teeth. No one, positively no one had managed to make them do that before!
******
A/N - Hi! I know this is a little unusual but bear with me. Not my usual style, that's
for sure. Sarah will come into this eventually as will Hoggle and possibly some other
Labyrinth creatures. Thank you and please leave a review. ^_^
******
The bright, airy landscape melted away before Arian's eyes and they were once again
in the study.
"What happened? I thought we were going to start!" she said, now feeling utterly
confused.
"We are." said Jareth, sitting down at his desk "But there's a lot of background
information you need to learn first."
"You mean theory work?" her father nodded. Arian breathed a sigh of relief. Theory
was OK. She could handle that side of things...
That moment, her eye fell on an old bookcase that she could have sworn wasn't there
before. This did not concern her, things appeared and disappeared in the Labyrinth all
the time, it was just the way things were. What worried her were the books that rested
on it. By nature, Arian loved anything to do with the written word but these were not
her definition of books. They leaked dark energies beyond her understanding and the
stuffy air around them sizzled with tiny sparks of magic and left an unsavoury metallic
taste in her mouth. The taste of blood, although she could find none! These were not
books, they were a crime against nature!
Jareth noticed his daughter's distress and quickly reassured her : "Don't worry. They're
quite harmless."
"Then, why are they chained to the bookcase?" cried Arian, for they were. Jareth
ignored her question and proceeded to unlock one of them from its tiny shackles. The
book was a very dark brown with iron hinges and an iron lock on the front. Was its
contents that important that it had to be locked up to stop people from getting in? She
thought. Or was the lock there to stop something from getting out? Frankly she didn't
want to know. She just wanted to get out of there and away from that room!
With the same key, her father unlocked the book and placed it on the desk in front of
where she was sitting. They both failed to notice that the star of her pendant briefly
changed from black to clear, then clear to black again, for it happened so quickly that
one blink would have missed it completely. Arian gulped nervously and reached with
a shaking hand to open the book. What she saw made her gasp with both fear and
fascination. There, on the page, lay an ancient scripture Arian had never seen before.
Each letter seemed to rearrange itself every time she tried to concentrate on it and the
ink swirled around fluidly like eels leaving a fluorescent blue trail.
Arian watched mesmerised by the mysterious writing. She imagined it was like
watching some kind of poisonous snake, deadly yet morbidly beautiful. Every now
and again her eyes glowed with recognition when for a split second the text became
briefly legible, but then they would darken again as a letter would skitter off into a
completely different language and on a new part of the page. She was gripped with
frustration at this and grabbed a sword shaped letter opener from the desk and swiftly
plunged it into the heart of a particularly troublesome word. The book gave a shrill
little yelp and slammed shut never taking Arian's hand with it.
Jareth had been watching her all the while. For a moment she looked engrossed in the
text she was faced with. For a few beautiful seconds he thought he had found her
strength and that from then on she would take to magic like a duck to water as she had
done with everything else he had tried teaching her when she was very young. Sadly
this was not so when she tried to gain control through stabbing the words. Jareth
smiled. That was exactly what he had done at that age. Whether she liked it or not his
daughter did indeed take after him in some respects.
"That thing's insane!" cried Arian.
"Well, you weren't being very nice to it." said Jareth smugly.
Arian rolled her eyes "So how do I get it to behave?"
"Does this mean you're finally taking an interest?" he teased.
"If you're going to be all self satisfied like that then I don't care." said Arian haughtily
"I've got far better things to do than restrain maniacal books with you."
"Ah yes! You're little hobbies." her eyes smouldered with anger at the words "I'm
afraid you'll have very little time for such things now that your responsibilities lie
elsewhere."
"What responsibilities? I should think it was quite clear by now that magic and me
just don't mix! What use could I possibly be to you in that respect?"
"You are my only heir, Arian." he replied angrily "And after all I have done for you I
would think it only courteous for you to start doing something in return!"
"Your heir! Oh for Christ's sake! You're not even my real father! Why don't you just
go! Get a girlfriend! Get a proper heir! And leave me be!" she was shouting now
which was very out of character and she got up and stormed out of the room,
slamming the door behind her.
Jareth was about to follow suit but decided against it. It served him right for trying to
interfere with things that were so important to her. Besides, she was a clever girl, she
would come round. He hoped! Something else was troubling him aside from her
stinging remarks. As her anger grew, whatever energies she contained increased and
he could have sworn that her star pendant had gone clear for a few seconds. The book
on the table opened itself and Jareth glanced down to see the strange swirling ink
creatures lined up smartly in standard English. He sucked in some air between his
teeth. No one, positively no one had managed to make them do that before!